Shamil BORCHASHVILI (AUT/-81), Olympic bronze medallist in Tokyo and runner-up at the Grand Slam tournament in Tashkent (UZB) last Saturday, was supposed to defend his title from last year at the home Upper Austrian Grand Prix in LINZ (AUT) this weekend.
“We rock Linz, my brother and I. I’m sure that one of us will win gold in the end,” said the 28-year-old with confidence. Until Wednesday morning, when the Austrian Judo Federation withdrew the nomination of the world number nine.
“A precautionary measure! Shamil had to go to the golden score four times in a total of five fights in Tashkent. Net fighting time: 21:59 minutes. Then there was the demanding journey back from Uzbekistan. He hasn’t been able to recover properly yet, so it makes more sense to take it easy on him,” explained Judo Austria Sports Director Markus Moser. “I feel very drained and need a few more days off. The decision was very difficult for me, I would have loved to defend my title from last year”, emphasized the number 9 of the IJF world ranking list. “Instead of fighting myself and risking an injury, I will keep my fingers crossed for the Judo Austria team. For Wachid, I hope that the GP victory up to 81 kg stays in the family.”
The Islamic fasting month of Ramadan begins on Monday, 11 March. The Borchashvili brothers Shamil and Wachid will rest with five international training partners during the day and train at night (10 p.m. and 3 a.m. respectively). Shamil Borchashvili: “We already did this last year. This way, the Olympic preparations continue virtually undisturbed.”
The good news: All the other top Austrian athletes – above all Olympic silver medallist Michaela Polleres (-70) and the Grand Slam winners Lubjana Piovesana (-63), Shamils brother Wachid (-81) and Aaron Fara (-100) – will be taking part in the home Grand Prix.
The most important facts and figures about the 2nd Upper Austria Grand Prix:
- A total of 548 judoka from 80 nations have entered for the three days of competition in Linz. By comparison, there were “only” 455 starters from 72 nations at the Linz premiere last year.
- In addition to host Austria (33), France (25), Germany, Kazakhstan (22 each), Brazil (20), Italy (19), Israel, Japan, the Netherlands and Spain (18 each) make up the largest delegations.
- With an average age of 22.1 years, the Austrian team is extremely young. Five athletes are celebrating their World Tour première.
- A total of 17 top 10 athletes will be competing in Linz. If you add up all the triumphs of the Linz starters, you get a total of three Olympic victories and thirteen (!) World Championship titles.
- The TipsArena is designed for a capacity of 2,000 people for the three days of competition. Fights will take place simultaneously on four mats (preliminary round).
- The prize money amounts to 100,000 US dollars.
- Austria has five seeded athletes: Michaela Polleres (-70/1), Shamil Borchashvili (-81/2), Aaron Fara (-100/3), Wachid Borchashvili (-81/3), Katharina Tanzer (-48/4) and Lubjana Piovesana (-63/5).
- A total of 150 volunteers will ensure that everything runs smoothly.
Author: EJU Media